


Of Fire and Ice

by Silver_Sylph



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-27
Updated: 2015-02-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 07:48:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3010700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silver_Sylph/pseuds/Silver_Sylph
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After sharing a bed one night after an exhausting case, Sherlock and John come to realize that while what they have is nice, they want something warmer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Ice

**Author's Note:**

> This work in not Brit picked. All mistakes are my own. If you see any mistakes, feel free to tell me in the comments, and I will try to fix them.
> 
> I do not own these characters, and only wish to add my tribute to the collection.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Sherlock crawling into his bed to escape the freezing flat, John isn't sure what to think.

When John awoke, he felt warm and content. It was so cozy under the covers with this warm body lying next to him. Wait. What? John looked over to his right, and saw with some surprise what there was a sleeping consulting detective curled up next to him.

It was pleasant to have Sherlock next to him, John realized. Sherlock radiated warmth, a wonderful thing in a cold flat, and was currently blissfully quiet and asleep.

John vaguely remembered Sherlock crawling into bed after him the night before. They had just finished a case that had lasted a week, and culminated with Sherlock and John chasing the suspect through an abandon warehouse. It had been exhausting for John and Sherlock, especially for Sherlock, as John wasn’t sure he had sleep at all during the case. And so when they arrived home to a freezing flat, it seemed only natural that they sleep together. Or, it had at the time. Now in the morning light, John couldn’t help but question the wisdom of sharing a bed with Sherlock. He was attracted to the man; who wasn’t? But John didn’t want to push Sherlock with his affections and end up ruining their friendship.   Sherlock was his best friend, and John had no idea what he would do if he lost that or Sherlock kicked him out of the flat. Hell, John had no idea what Sherlock would do if he learned of the extent of John’s affections for him. Sherlock had made it perfectly clear that first dinner at Angelo’s that he had no interest in a relationship, so John had dated women and tried to move past his feelings for his flat mate.

Lying in bed next to the object of his affections, John couldn’t help but wish… But that was stupid, John reminded himself with a mental shake, and went to make breakfast.

 

 

Sherlock wandered out to the kitchen some time later as John was just finishing making toast. John didn’t bother turning around as he called over his shoulder, “Tea? And I made you some toast.”

John turned holding a plate of toast in each hand to find Sherlock standing close behind him in his blue dressing gown. Startled, John could only stare mutely as Sherlock grabbed one of the plates from his hands, and wandered off to ensconce himself on the sofa. John started. Sherlock after a case was a bit unpredictable, he supposed, and set about making tea.

 

 

Sherlock spending the night in John’s bed began a habit. As had returning home to a freezing flat. Some nights, John would shiver, make some comment about fixing the heating, and wander off to bed only to be woken up around one in the morning to Sherlock, feeling like a block of ice, climbing into his bed. John would grumble, and roll over to make room. In morning, John would some times wake up to find Sherlock still asleep and would wander to the kitchen to make breakfast for them both. But more often Sherlock would already be up and working on some experiment by the time John awoke. Neither of them ever spoke of the nights they spent sleeping together, and John was frustrated. He wondered if Sherlock climbing into his bed was due to the cold to something else.

 

 

It was approaching the fourth week of having a suspiciously cold flat when John decided he had to confront Sherlock about it.

John climbed the stairs to the flat after a shift at the surgery to find that, yet again, the flat was freezing.

“Sherlock,” John called, “Is there any particular reason why the flat has been so cold for the past few weeks?”

Sherlock didn’t bother to look over at John from his position on the couch.

“No,” he said.

John was skeptical, but he kept his thought to himself for the moment.

That night John tried another tactic.

“You know, Sherlock,” he said carefully, “you can always join me in bed if you are cold.”

Sherlock started. He quickly glanced at John as if to check if he was being serious.  John caught his breath and waited. But Sherlock merely grunted and went back to fiddling with his microscope. John went to bed a bit discouraged. He had hoped that Sherlock was turning down the heat so he could be close to John. That Sherlock shared John’s feelings. 

John quickly shut down that train of thought. It was no good wishing for something that was improbable.


	2. Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sherlock has found that he likes the intimacy of sharing a bed with John. He wants more intimacy, but is unsure of how to go about getting it.

The flat was particularly cold today, Sherlock noticed.  He had been keeping flat cold recently, to make his interest in sleeping in the same bed as John more plausible.

After sharing a bed with John weeks before, Sherlock had realized he wanted the easy intimacy he had felt.  Sherlock liked John, how could anyone not?  But recently with increased intimacy with John he had discovered that his feelings for John ran beyond just friendship.

He had always been jealous of John’s girlfriends and purposefully deleted their names, but Sherlock had not examined why he was jealous.  Waking up to John making breakfast and feeling that the sheets were still warm from his body, or that John himself was still curled up at his side led Sherlock to realize he had been jealous of the intimacy they had with John. He had never been in the habit of sleeping regularly, but now Sherlock found himself retiring to John’s bed with alarming frequency.  And from the way John reacted, he didn’t mind.  John had not rejected Sherlock from his bed, in fact, he seemed to welcome the invasions, but one could not be to careful.

So Sherlock had kept the flat cold.  But this had gotten to a point where Sherlock could no longer properly concentrate when John was in the room, he was so worried.  And beside, if John was willing to enter into a relationship it would solve his dating problems.

Also, Sherlock wanted to try that.  Dating.  With John.  He couldn't imagine doing it with anyone else.

And so Sherlock decided that he was going to confront John.  The worst that could happen was John rejected him, and he lost the ability to sleep in John's bed.  Or John could move out... Sherlock decided it was best not to think about that option.

 

 

When John got home from the surgery with takeout, Sherlock noticed his expression go from surprised, to confused, to accepting when he saw the fire Sherlock had lit in the fire place.

"A fire is nice," John said.  "It has been chilling in here, when with the heating system acting up."

Sherlock made a noncommittal grunt from his position curled up in his armchair in front of the fire.

John hung up his coat, and brought the takeout over to the coach.  He sat down, and while Sherlock observed from his armchair, pulled out containers of food.  Shortly there after, Sherlock go up and joined John on the coach.  John handed Sherlock a container of some chicken dish.  Together they silently ate their food in front of the fire.

Sherlock felt nervous.  He had decided he was going to confront John, and now was as good a time to as any.

"John," Sherlock began.  He paused.

"Yes, Sherlock?"

"Over the past few weeks I have come to a conclusion."

Sherlock hesitated again.  It was now or never.

"I have enjoyed our new intimacy, and, well, um, I would not be adverse to considering changing the parameters of our relationship to extent to include other acts than just sharing a bed," Sherlock finished in a bit of a rush.

He looked down at his lap, and then quickly glanced at John.

John appeared shocked, like he was trying to understand what had just been said.  Sherlock quickly looked away again.  From John's expression he could tell John had not been expecting this, and probably didn't want follow Sherlock's suggestion.

Sherlock hung his head.  He thought it had been worth a try, and he hoped John would just forget about the incident and they could continue on as they had before.  Sherlock rose from the coach and started to walk away toward his bedroom.

"Wait!”

Sherlock pause and turned reluctantly back toward John.  John had gotten up from the coach and made his way over to Sherlock.  He stopped when he was within arms' reach of the detective, and met his eyes.

"You didn't give me a chance to respond," John said.

Sherlock looked away, nervous.  John was going to reject him, but why did he have to be close to Sherlock to do it?

"Hey," John said, and cupped Sherlock's chin.  "Look at me."

Sherlock reluctantly raised his eyes to look into John's.  John leaned forward and planted a chaste kiss on Sherlock's lips.

John drew away from Sherlock after some time had passe.  Sherlock wasn't sure how much time had passed from the beginning till the end of the kiss, but he knew there had been some passage of time.  But he brain was a bit frozen.  John had kissed him.  Him.  Sherlock Holmes.  How was he supposed to react?  Was he supposed to kiss John back?  Did people used tongue?

John looked at Sherlock's face.  He frowned slightly and started to remove his hand from Sherlock's face and move away.

"Sorry," John mumbled. "I thought... never mind, sorry."

As John pulled away dejectedly, Sherlock's brain finally realized it could move, and so Sherlock reacted.  He reached out, cupped John's chin, like John had done to his only moments ago, and kissed John.

At first John was startled, but then he smiled against Sherlock's lips and eagerly returned the kiss.

The kiss started as gentle touch of lips but morphed into something more intense.  It felt to Sherlock as though he was melting, warmed to the core by the intensity of emotion in the kiss.

John broke the kiss, only to smile warmly at Sherlock.  And now Sherlock allowed himself to imagine a future full of John, warmth, and kisses.

"So you want to be in a more intimate relationship," Sherlock asked.

"Of course, you daft git.  I was afraid I had miss understood you, when you didn't respond to my kiss."

"Well I thought you had rejected me when you didn't respond to my, um, conclusion."

"I thought I might be imagining things, as how could what I wanted possibly be coming true, what with your 'married to my work' thing when we first met."

"John, you should know I haven't considered myself that for a while."

"Good."

They smiled happily at each other.

"Now, can we finish our takeaway and cuddle," asked John.

Sherlock's only response was to smile indulgently, and led the way back to the coach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first published fanfic. Thank you for sticking till the end. :)


End file.
